nasicornis bites

Dear all,

I see that many of you own these beautiful species.
Was any of you bitten by it?
This spring we issued a small case report of a bite by a captive specimen in Hungary. While compiling that report I managed to trace only 4 published cases: 1965 Minnesota, 2002 two bites in St. Louis, and another fatal bite from Dayton. Thus there's a huge lack of knowledge on the clinical profile of these bites, and the most useful first aids.
Therefore we'd like to compile an review of as many cases as possible, and would appreciate your help in it. In case any of suffered accidents by this species, and would like to share its details, that would be great.
Of course all cases will be treated anonymously!!!
I believe that physicians, herpetologists and of course keepers would much benefit from such a review.
Thank you in advance.

Best wishes,
Laszlo
--
László Krecsák
Eötvös Loránd University
Dep. Syst. Zool. & Ecol.
Pázmány P. s 1/C
H-1117 Budapest Hungary
email: lkrecsak@gmail.com
homepage: http://lkrecsak.uw.hu/
Skype & Yahoo Messenger: lkrecsak

Laszlo:

Those are all of the bites by Nasicornis that I'm aware of....

Cheers!

Al

nasicornis has a very potent venom. it destroys blood, tissue 0and its neurotoxic

Butterfly adders rule!
Too many people confuse rarity with true beauty.

Yes, the venom has strong anticoagulant effects.

Quote :: nasicornis has a very potent venom. it destroys blood, tissue 0and its neurotoxic

Never heard about neurotoxicity in Bitis nasicornis.
As far as i know, neurotoxic symptoms (cranial muscle paralysis) have been reported only from Bitis gabonica and Bitis atropos.

Any papers, links etc. available?

regards
Peter

indeed. gaboons have neurotoxins. same as nasicornis. they are much more related to gabs than puffies.

Please avoid using these delittlements - we'd like to maintain some level here - there are kindergarten-forums enough in the www - and VenomLand should be somewhat different, isn't it?
Peter

Ok is see. No problem!

Quote :: gaboons have neurotoxins. same as nasicornis.

said who? just an assumption or are you able to proof that?
Any research done on this question - any papers available?

Peter

Mallow D, Ludwig D, Nilson G. 2003. True Vipers: Natural History and Toxinology of Old World Vipers. Krieger Publishing Company, Malabar, Florida. 359 pp. ISBN 0-89464-877-2.

also interseting: In the guinea-pig Langendorff heart preparation, addition of 0.1 mg Bitis nasicornis venom to the perfusion solution caused transient increases in heart rate (HR) and left ventricular systolic pressure (LVSP) with peak increases at 2 min. With higher doses (0.6 and 1.4 mg), these increases were followed by the return of HR to normal, significant decreases in LVSP below control values and marked increases in left ventricular diastolic pressure. Histaminergic blockade with ranitidine reduced the positive responses. The results suggest that a venom component, possibly acting on intracellular calcium movement, could be responsible for both positive and negative effects.

Venom from B. nasicornis, but not from Bitis arietans, Echis carinatus or Cerastes cerastes, produced an irreversible contraction of the isolated aortic strip that was slow in onset, increased with time, and reached maximum in about 10 – 15 min. The contraction was not inhibited by pretreatment with atropine, yohimbine, phentolamine, cyproheptadine or indomethacin, however, it was blocked by incubation in a Ca2+-free solution and was partially blocked by incubation with the Ca2+ channel blockers verapamil and nifedipine. It is concluded that B. nasicornis venom may act by increasing the Ca2+ influx into smooth cells, thus causing an increase in intracellular Ca2+ concentration and hence a contraction of the aortic strip.

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